We've covered Lydia Carpenter and Wian Prinsloo's decade-long journey from inception to farm ownership. For lessons from the first 5 years, see: Making Farm Ownership Viable for Young People: Lessons from Luna Field Farm Part I
Photos: Luna Field Farm
How Lydia Carpenter and Wian Prinsloo got to farm ownership, nearly a decade after they started their grazing and regenerative meat business.
Our good friends Lydia Carpenter and Wian Prinsloo are the owners of Luna Field Farm near Belmont, Manitoba. Neither of them grew up with a family farm, but were deeply committed to farming as a career since their 20s. They knew they wanted to farm, but had no clear picture how they would work their way into owning land.
Fast forward a decade, and they have built their way from renting pastures, to rolling three-year leases, to owning their own farm in a succession agreement nearly a decade after they started their business.
Part I: Advice to Young Farmers From Luna Field Farm reposted from our blog in 2016. It starts with building a small, portable business to take advantage of leases. Stay tuned for Part II on a deep dive of how they made farm ownership work.
We couldn't be prouder to support Womxn in Ranching.
We're proud to follow our teammate Erin Kiley's leadership in creating critical spaces of inclusion and belonging. Erin started one of the initial conversations that became Womxn* in Ranching (WinR), in a hallway conversation at Quivira Conference. Erin Kiley asked for more spaces for womxn like herself in the ranching community. Just a year later, Womxn in Ranching is 80 members strong, with a 300+ person waitlist. As a leader in WinR, Erin has helped create 5 Circles in California, Montana, and New Mexico. In her day job, Erin is the Grazing Management and Rancher Success Lead at PastureMap.
When womxn rise, we all rise.
"Womxn in Ranching is not just about womxn, and not just about ranchers. It's about answering the calling of “how do we belong to the land?” and “how do we belong to each other?” The answers reverberate far beyond the circles of womxn, and ranchers, from where these questions originate." - Our CEO, Christine Su, belongs to Circle Two at TomKat Ranch in CA.
The WinR fundraiser has one week left, and has reached 70% of their funding goal. Donate now for a 3x funding match. Achieving $10k will unlock $30k total from matching partners to build WinR Circles in every Western State.
Donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/women-in-ranching-empowering-womens-leadership
I can't believe it's time to welcome 450 producers to Santa Rosa for Grassfed Exchange 2019: Regeneration Rising in less than a week. As co-chair of the conference, I've been dreaming, planning, and anticipating for a full year. Here are the sessions I'm most excited about:
Our breakout session with Dave Pratt and Deborah Clark on Friday. Real talk on losing millions, pulling out of disaster, and make-or-break decisions that drive ranch profitability.
A version of this post first appeared July 2018. This March 2019 update precedes the Grassfed Exchange: Regeneration Rising 2019 conference.
Many of us in the soil health movement like to think of ourselves as regenerative businesses. But a regenerative mindset isn’t only about land, animals, and plants. Building a regenerative business means including ourselves. We need to invest in what Nikki Silvestri calls social soil building.
We could not be more excited to be co-chairing the The Grassfed Exchange conference: Regeneration Rising this April in Santa Rosa, California!
We have an absolutely packed agenda of national and global speakers. We're also centering the voices of next generation leaders, including Doniga Markegard, Ariel Greenwood, Brian Alexander, Byron Palmer, Nikki Silvestri, Dede Boies, Loren Poncia, Anthony Myint, and more.
Oh hey. Two cold, cold months into 2019 and we're badly in need of some fun during these winter doldrums. Let's go somewhere else. Imagine sunny days, green grass, and rocking this swag on your ATV. The neighbors will either be confused, still clueless, or jealous of your sweet threads.
Vote for your favorite T-Shirt slogan, or submit your own. We'll tally up the winning votes and favorite audience submission (crediting you, of course!) and print these in time for spring.
We'll also have the winning T-shirts available at The Grassfed Exchange: Regeneration Rising in Santa Rosa, April 3-5, 2019. Register now to hang with a community of 300+ grazing nerds like you in the rolling foothills and wine country of Sonoma. You deserve it.
[UPDATE]: Yes, these shirts will be sourced locally. We'll want to direct this community's dollars to regenerative fiber as our fiber producers need love too. If you have a recommendation for apparel makers, ping us.
"Good Monday morning to all you critter and land loving folks..." is how the Working Cows blog starts off every week. At last, something to get you through every winter Monday this time of year.